1.02.2009

Flowers By Eddie

Eddie Ross: Former Senior Style Editor at Martha Stewart Living magazine, fourth top designer on the hit Bravo series Top Design (I can live with his design), avid flea marketer, overall fabulous New Yorker and, as it turns out, an incredible floral designer!

Every so often, Eddie will make a classic arrangement for the visitors of his blog, Eddieross.com, which I urge you to see, as gifts for their continued readership. (He puts me to shame!) I became so enamoured of his gorgeous flower arrangements over the last several months that I asked him if I could post them here on the blog. He happily obliged. Call it regifting, call it whatever you want, but I had to show off these visions of floral fabulousness on my blog. The series below seems to follow a beautifully linear, seasonal pattern, that is timeless and attractive. And let's face it, January is a viscious old month, making it all the more important to inject some colour and verve into our homes. Thank you, Eddie! You are a true talent.

Spring: There's nothing quite like a monochromatic grouping of classic roses in a cut-glass vase for a simple but dramatic effect. Eddie has arranged a bunch of this lavender variety perfectly!

Late Summer Arrangement: In a simple glass cylinder, Eddie used an exuberant mix of antique hydrangeas, roses, calla lilies, Scotch thistle and berries. Everything was inexpensive, but it's the colour palette—a soft, muted mix of burgundy, dark purple and peach—that makes the arrangement look so chic and expensive. Here's another one of Eddie's tricks of the trade: If you're using a mix of flowers, as he did here, all with stems of varying color and size, line the vase with a large variegated leaf. It makes for a look that's much prettier and more pulled together.

Late Summer Arrangement: The way these colors mix and play off one another—the punchy red, the muted green and the pale yellow—there's something very Hamptons 1940s beach casual about it. The glazed yellow McCoy vase was picked up at Sage Street. Thanksgiving Arrangement: The flowers themselves are inexpensive —a monochromatic mix of burnt orange roses, deco mums and astromerium from the deli around the corner from Eddie's apartment in New York —together with sickle pears from the super market and fall leaves from the sidewalk right outside his door. With the right color palette (seasonal and very subtle), a good mix of textures and an elegant vessel, found for $15 at a flea market, even the most inexpensive arrangement can look like a million bucks!November Arrangements: Purpley mums in a gray-green pumpkin, which acts as a cache pot —it’s such an unexpected take on a classic fall arrangement.

For a more traditional take on pumpkin arrangements, stick to the orange kind. They're classic and straight-up pretty, especially paired with hypericum berries and dahlias in all the colors of the season. You know when you're watching a really beautiful sunset and it's those last few minutes just before the sun dips out of sight? The sky bursts into such vibrant colors—rich reds, yellows and oranges—just like these flowers!

Holiday Arrangement: In an antique milk glass compote, Eddie chose a sweet bouquet of white roses, Italian carnations and variegated boxwood, all from the local deli. For an even more elegant holiday feel, he added miniature glass globe ornaments in a frosted silvery gray. Please visit Eddieross.com for more flower arrangements, tips on entertaining, decorating and so much more.

Eddie's flower arrangements are perfection! I already filed away the photo of the pumpkin one when he featured it on his blog...Now I'm going to file away this whole post for future reference. Thanks for the round-up!